December 1, 2015 – During the recent Thanksgiving holiday, families throughout the county filled our plates and our bellies with roast turkey and chestnut stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, hot buttered rolls and other kinds of comfort food. Then we bundled into our coats and took a constitutional around the neighborhood to make room for Grandma’s pumpkin or pecan or apple or sweet potato pie, a la mode.
Many of us continued our recreational eating right through the weekend. Yet in the meantime, 5,000 kids in the Salinas school district brought home a bag of nutritious snacks, provided by the The Food Bank for Monterey County (FBMC), just to help get them through the weekend.
Part of a new program launched this fall at the start of the semester, Kids Now is designed to supplement the school breakfast and lunch programs that nourish kids during the week, by providing groceries they can prepare themselves, to tide them over until Monday.
“The homeless rate in the Salinas school district is 30%, which seems overwhelming,” says FBMC Executive Director Melissa Kendrick. “In this case, ‘homeless’ is defined as anyone who is transient or doesn’t have a permanent residence. The district even has a dedicated homeless liaison. This is a huge issue.”
As soon as the Food Bank was able to arrange the funding and logistics to acquire, pack and deliver food, Kids Now expanded into Gonzalez schools. Kendrick would like to see the program duplicated in other districts, including the local junior colleges.
Recognizing that students don’t graduate from hunger until they are able to support themselves, the Food Bank is working with the Associated Student Body at CSU Monterey Bay to establish a food pantry on campus after New Years.
“We’ve been thinking about this need for awhile,” says Kendrick. “This happens on a lot of campuses. With increased tuition and housing costs, some students don’t have enough money left over for food. I can’t imagine trying to study while feeling hungry. I tell my child every day, on our worst day, we are so lucky. Hunger is a silent epidemic.”
Working with 140 partner agencies to distribute food as far north as Pajaro and as far south as San Ardo, the Food Bank feeds 20% of the population of Monterey County, says Kendrick, including 25% of our children. In the last year, the organization added 40 partner agencies to extend their reach.
If Monterey County were its own state, says Kendrick, it would be considered the 10th-largest ag-producing state in the country. But plenty of produce doesn’t mean local residents have access to it. This past summer, the Food Bank piloted several senior produce programs, though which senior citizens in need receive a weekly bag of fresh produce.
“We don’t call the people we feed ‘recipients’ any more,” says Kendrick. “They are our friends, our neighbors, our family. No one in this great country and community of ours should go hungry. It is demeaning to all of us. I believe we have the resources and the will in this county to solve the hunger problem here.”
Although the Food Bank typically raises 75% of its annual funds between November 1 and January 1, many organizations and individuals gave generously to the organization this past March, in the aftermath of the arson fire. While Kendrick remains grateful to all those who made it possible for the Food Bank to operate at minimal capacity within days of the fire, she recognizes that a lot of funds earmarked for program development were redirected to rebuilding the organization. Kids Now, for example, was slated to begin last spring but was delayed, due to funding, until this fall.
On Thanksgiving, one week ago, the Food Bank served more than 3,000 meals at the Monterey Fairgrounds.
“Hunger never takes a holiday,” says Kendrick, “but we are so grateful to all those who give to the Food Bank during the holidays. This is a very generous community. So those who give, please give generously this year.”
Donate to The Food Bank for Monterey County here.
About the author
A fifth-generation Northern Californian, Lisa Crawford Watson has enjoyed a diverse career in business, education and writing. She lives with her family on the Monterey Peninsula, where her grandmother once lived and wrote. An adjunct writing instructor for CSU Monterey Bay and Monterey Peninsula College, Lisa is also a free-lance writer, who specializes in the genres of art & architecture, health & lifestyle, food & wine. She has published various books and thousands of feature articles and columns in local and national newspapers and magazines.
